PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Republican incumbent dropped his request for a recount Friday in the first congressional race in U.S. history held under a system by which voters rank candidates in order of preference.
The announcement by Rep. Bruce Poliquin came a day after a federal judge tossed ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is racing to avoid a partial government shutdown next Friday over President Donald Trump’s border wall. But you wouldn’t know it by the schedule, as lawmakers left town waiting for the White House’s next move.
The House is taking an extended five-day ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday picked budget director Mick Mulvaney to be his next chief of staff, ending a chaotic search that had been inching forward with the feel of an unfolding reality TV show.
Trump tweeted that Mulvaney “will be named Acting White House Chief ...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbia threatened a possible armed intervention in Kosovo after the Kosovo parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army. Belgrade called the move a “direct threat to peace and stability” in the Balkans and lashed out at the United States ...

NEW YORK
J&J denies asbestos in baby powder
NEW YORK — Johnson & Johnson on Friday forcefully denied a media report that it knew for decades about the existence of trace amounts of asbestos in its baby powder.
The report by the Reuters news service sent the company’s shares ...

INDIA
10 die of suspected food poisoning
NEW DELHI — At least 10 people in southern India died Friday of suspected food poisoning after a ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new Hindu temple, police said.
Another 32 people were hospitalized after they ate at the ceremony in ...

WASHINGTON — Shaken and facing a prison term, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer said Friday that Trump directed him to buy the silence of two women during the 2016 campaign because he was concerned their stories of alleged affairs with him “would affect the election.” He ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Apple plans to build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, that will create at least 5,000 jobs ranging from engineers to call-center agents while adding more luster to a Southwestern city that has already become a bustling tech hub.
The decision, announced Thursday, comes ...

Toyota pickups, SUVs to fix air bag, brakes
Toyota is recalling nearly 143,000 SUVs and pickups worldwide to fix air bag and brake problems.
The first recall covers about 96,000 Toyota Land Cruisers and Lexus LX570 SUVs from 2008 through 2019. Toyota says a seat belt tension sensor can ...

With OK from Congress, US hemp market to boom
Hemp is about to be­come legal nationwide. A provision of the farm bill that received final approval in Congress on Wednesday removes hemp from the list of federally controlled substances and treats it like a regular crop. Hemp is a type of ...

MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 50 miles high above Cal­i­for­nia’s Mojave Desert on Thurs­day, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space.
The rocket ship hit an altitude of 51 miles before beginning its ...

WASHINGTON — Senators voted Thursday to recommend that the U.S. end its assistance to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen and put the blame for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi squarely on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a direct challenge to both the longtime Middle East ally ...

ANKARA, Turkey — A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass Thursday at a station in the Turkish capital of Ankara, killing nine people and injuring dozens, officials said.
The 6:30 a.m. train from Ankara to the central Turkish city of Konya collided ...

NEW YORK — A wave of bomb threats emailed Thursday to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggered searches, evacuations and fear — but there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.
Law ...

Georgia
Officer killed after traffic stop
ATLANTA — Authorities said a Georgia police officer and a suspect have both died after a traffic stop led to a foot chase and shooting.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, DeKalb County police Chief James Conroy said at a news ...

Netherlands
Man with knife arrested at airport
THE HAGUE — Military police in the Netherlands have arrested a man armed with a knife at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
Military police spokeswoman Joanna Helmonds said the man allegedly threatened passers-by on Thursday night before ...

READING — Police have identified three males who were fatally shot on a Pennsylvania city street.
Reading police said 18-year-old Marli Alonso; 19-year-old Joel Cintron; and 20-year-old Omar Harris were gunned down about
7 p.m. Wednesday.
Police said Alonso and Cintron were found dead ...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania officials say thousands of kits of the anti-overdose medication naloxone have been distributed in a statewide effort designed to prevent opioid deaths.
The Health Department said demand for the handouts at government offices on Thursday caused dozens of locations ...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Bob Bryan, one half of the comedy duo Bert and I, which had fun at the expense of Maine Yankees and popularized the immortal punchline, “You can’t get there from here,” has died at his home in Quebec. He was 87.
Bryan and the late Marshall Dodge created punch ...

ATLANTA — Railroad company Norfolk Southern Corp. is moving its headquarters from Norfolk, Virginia, to Atlanta, bringing with it 850 jobs and more than $500 million in economic investment, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced Wed­nesday.
The company plans to build a new headquarters campus ...